During his 29-year career as an award-winning editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Y. Sussman was transformed by the words of one of his most unique writers.

Dannie "Red Hog" Martin, a heroin addict and bank robber, wrote a series of articles from his prison cell that were so moving that they turned into a regular Chronicle column, then a book, then a media controversy that led Sussman on a lifelong journey to improve prison access for reporters and First Amendment rights for inmates.

Now 71, Sussman has retired from The Chronicle, but by no means has stopped fighting the good fight.

A: It's not easy to go cold turkey after a lifetime heroin habit. After he was released in 1991, he had a few lapses, and finally left the Mission District, because he knew a dealer on every corner. He now lives in Alabama and has published a couple true crime novels. He's been sober for the last few years, even quit cigarettes.

Q:What do you think was the mass appeal of Dannie's columns, and later your joint book, "Committing Journalism"?

A: What happens in prison is our world. Many of us find ourselves there, as many a politician has found, or we have someone with a substance-abuse problem in our lives. Dannie effectively showed the humanity of those in prison, and thereby showed those on the outside are just the same as those on the inside.

Q:Your next book was about the private letters of another muckraker, Jessica Mitford. Which was your favorite letter?

A: The one about when she was asked to be a distinguished professor by San Jose State, which was a big deal because she grew up in an aristocratic family and her parents didn't think girls should go to school. The university wanted Mitford to take a loyalty oath and give her fingerprints, neither of which she willingly gave.

Q:What was your reaction when California voters recently passed a law to amend the three-strikes law to not treat third petty crimes the same as serious ones?

A: I'm certainly encouraged, but many aspects of the law are very unjust. We're still putting people in prison for 25-to-life based on crimes that in many instances they committed as juveniles. There is no open process in juvenile proceedings. Without access through the press, we have no idea what's being done in our name.

Q:You've been writing about this issue recently, yes?

A: I was hired to do a report for the nonprofit Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. In researching that, I met the mother of a young Hispanic boy who was mentally ill. He would do things like set cars on fire and then knock on the owner's door and help them put the blaze out. He had two felonies by the time he was put in a program and given medications. Then a burglar stole a neighbor's jewelry. This boy went to the police station to say he knew where the jewelry was. Of course he did it, but everyone agreed this boy shouldn't be incarcerated. The judge sent him to prison under three strikes, and he was soon after murdered by his cell mate. That's what's wrong with three strikes.

Q:Which came first, the writer or the activist?

A: I wanted to be a scientist. My dad was one.

Q:What was your first job?

A: Besides shoveling snow in Long Island? Selling encyclopedias door-to-door. I didn't sell one. But my first real job was at The Chronicle. I was 23 and walked in the door on a day when they had a vacancy on the copy desk.

Q:Where do you live?

A: Berkeley - same house, and same wife, for 41 years.

Q:Neighborhood hangout?

A: I can't walk well. I've had seven spinal surgeries, so I use a cane and a wheelchair sometimes. But I love to walk in Elmwood with walking sticks and talk to all the people I meet - the newcomers and the old-timers.

Q:What would it surprise people to know about you?

A: I write poetry. It's the most expressive of the arts and operates most like the way the mind operates.

Q:Guilty pleasure?

A: Chocolate - dark, please.

Q:Favorite pastime?

A: Spending time with my seven grandchildren. Can I name them for your article?